Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The Schooner Bald Eagle is one of my favorite little schooners to photograph. Here is the Bald Eagle in August 2008 in front of the Tarr and Wanson paint factory. This is right after the building was donated to Ocean Alliance.

Here we are, one year later in September, 2009.

In 2011, the Bald Eagle still looks smart. The Tarr and Wanson paint factory is getting renovations. Yet the section of the factory on the left is finally giving in. I think we should see some action shortly as a berm has been placed there in the last week.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Irene’s here. Fortunately, we are just getting a blow. We are not really getting that much rain. It is not surprising that I’ve only seen two boats out on the harbor today. Both of the Gloucester USCG 47 foot Motor Lifeboats were out this morning.

These boats have two helms, one above and one inside. I cannot say I’ve ever seen them inside, not even in winter. I guess the weather must have to be a lot crappier than it is today.

For the past couple of months, we’ve been out of maple syrup. This is just not acceptable and although we can buy it from stores in the area, we prefer to buy directly from a producer that we know. But when the sugar season ends in March and it is August, many small producers are out of stock, then you are S.O.L.

The Franklin Farm Store is our must stop source for Vermont Maple Syrup. Just so happens that they are in my brother’s neck of the woods and they also have other organic stuff that we procure throughout the year…when we get over to visit my brother’s family, that is.

There are lots of little producers in Vermont, New York, New Hampshire and Maine. Find one you like and patronize them. Look, when I was a kid, there were thousands of family farms. I watched many small farmers get out of farming. So if you can buy directly from them, then you should. It’s good to know your suppliers.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

When we were young, my father used to take us over to Whitehall, New York to see the barges go through the locks on the Champlain Canal. On the way back from visiting my mom, we passed by Lock C3 in Mechanicville, New York. I just couldn’t resist stopping in to see the locks.

The Champlain Canal was a waterway to take good from New York City up the Hudson, into the Champlain Canal, up through Lake Champlain and eventually through to the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The golden age of barging is over now that trucking has taken over. The 1970’s saw a steady decline in barge traffic and the last regularly scheduled commercial ship working the canal was the Day Peckinpaugh which ended its operations in 1994.

Today the waterway services mostly tourist and pleasure boats, still making an easy path to go from New York City up to the Saint Lawrence Seaway. This picture is looking south from Lock C3 to Mechanicville. What you see is the Williams Street Bridge that brings 67 into town.

If you turn around from my vantage point you will see the lock doors.

The locks are opened and closed using these motors. This is the downstream door, holding back the water show in the picture above.

The upstream elevation is 73.5 feet. The downstream is 48 giving the lift of 25.5 feet.

This lock helps water traffic navigate past a power plant dam. The blue and yellow colors are part of the New York State color scheme that I remember vividly from our trips to Whitehall.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Becky was reading a book on a deck when she heard a fluttery sound. We found this darner stuck to the deck floor. It didn’t make much sense why it was stuck, but I manage to finally see that it was struggling with some sticky spider’s web abandoned by its owner. His legs were tangled and his abdomen was pinned to the deck. After assessing how to best free the creature, I grabbed it by pinching the wings behind it’s back (as my guidebook advises) and carefully untangled him from his sticky mess.

He was quite tired and not very pleased to be man-handled in such a fashion. However after cleaning him up a bit, I placed him on my finger and let go of his wings. If you never had a darner latch onto your finger, is is quite amazing. Those legs are build for gripping, and his little barbs are sharp. But no blood was drawn! He stayed for about 60 seconds, flapping his wings a bit, then mustered enough strength to take off.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Each year, around the beginning of August the Common Terns come into Gloucester Harbor. I like to challenge myself to get photos of these birds in action. This year, we didn’t see the numbers that we did last year and they seemed to be fishing more in the center of the harbor.

If you have a chance check out my other Tern shots. Scroll down and check out the Common Tern shots from previous years.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

I shot this Yellow-breasted Chat in California last June in Newport Beach. The size of an American Robin, it is our largest warbler. In this first shot, the Chat is “singing”. I say singing, but the call is a jumbled collection of chips, chirps, whistles and warbles.

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